Today sees the launch of the first offshoot from the Redux Global ICT 100 Index: the new R-100 ‘PTO Tracker’ brings together 25 major telcos from 20 countries around the world (for a list of them, click here). This sub-Index offers a regular insight into the complex fortunes of traditional fixed-network operators worldwide.

While it’s hard to feel too much sympathy for ‘the telephone company’ in any country (since when do you love anyone who sends you a bill every month or every quarter, and cuts you off when you fail to pay?), these organisations have endured a long haul. For a relatively unsympathetic review of the issues which they face, published to coincide with the launch of the R-100 ‘PTO Tracker’, click here.

Solid and superb and sad
A global composite of all the figures shows that, as a whole, the ‘PTO Tracker’ stocks have risen by 1.6% over the past three months. Given the initial slide in European telco equityin July and August, the incessantly steady growth in North America and September’s debacle in Asia, this is maybe not a bad result on balance.

In North America, the ‘PTO Tracker’ has reached escape velocity proportions. Led by Verizon, other US carriers such as BellSouth and SBC have showed significant growth over three months, counterbalancing the indifferent performances of AT&T and Qwest to achieve a net gain of 8.2% for the NA 'club' since the beginning of July. If an Index of 100 had been set at that point, it would now stand at more than 108.

Asia is a different, sadder, story. Of the five publicly traded PTOs which are part of the R-100, three are down or badly down (NTT, KDDI, Telstra) and two are up (Telekom Malaysia, SK Telecom). With the proportionate size of the decliners outweighing the risers, the net fall for the region is 20.4% in just three months – with 7.4% of that fall coming last month alone. An initial July index of 100 for the Far East would today stand at 79.76. Sayonara?

Copper rush?
It is staggering to see just how much the equity of these 25 R-100 PTO Tracker telcos is worth. As of 01 October, their combined value was US$783.75bn. Despite falls of US$31bn in the value of our Asian PTO stocks in the three months since July, this still puts the small matter of a surplus of US$3.5bn on the value of shares comprising the entire global sub-Index in that three-month period.

More startlingly, the 20 North American and European carriers in the ‘PTO Tracker’ have added a cool US$35bn in value in the last three months (at just under US$12bn per month, even Bill Gates would suck on his latte at the prospect). From a 02 July base of US$629bn, they are now valued somewhere north of US$664bn. That’s an awful lot of gain in share capital in just three months. That’s also not an awful lot of comfort if you are a small player on the Nikkei.

Not one to ignore, therefore.With regular access to the R-100 ‘PTO Tracker’, you can avoid such ignorance and opt for raw, real and revelatory information instead.
Jim Chalmers